The four-year-old daughter of new inside linebackers coach Kirk Olividatti has been battling leukemia, Richt announced. Olividatti’s wife Keely hasn’t left the hospital for 30 days, the head coach informed the crowd; she spoke to Richt on Monday, and agreed that Richt could make the daughter Kasyn’s fight public.

You can imagine the incredible strain on the family. Mrs. Olividatti has been by her daughter’s side the whole time as they fight through chemo treatments and their inevitable complications. The Olividattis also have a son back at their home in the Athens area. Coach Olividatti has worn out the highways between Atlanta and Athens managing to do his job while attending to his family now spread out over 60 miles.

If something like this has to happen to a family, it’s a small bit of grace that it happened here. Mark Richt’s assistants are generally loyal for a reason. We learned that during last season first-year assistant Warren Belin was given leave to travel to his dying mother each week. There is an incredible support system that has already sprung into action to aid the Olividatti family during their ordeal.

It also helps that Georgia is in close proximity to one of the nation’s top hospitals for pediatric cancer. The relationship between CHOA and the Georgia football program was already strong, and the Olividattis can at least take solace in the knowledge that Kasyn is receiving the best possible care.